


Blue and Gold

by tunglo



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Character Death Fix, Fix-It, M/M, Romance, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 10:58:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11804631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tunglo/pseuds/tunglo
Summary: Booster refuses to give in - there has to be a way to fix things.





	Blue and Gold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gwenfrankenstien](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwenfrankenstien/gifts).



> Note: This story takes place after the events of Infinite Crisis and before the events of Flashpoint.

Booster punched the chalkboard of Rip Hunter's Arizona time lab while shouting, “There has to be a way!” Cradling his possibly broken hand, he slumped down onto the floor while his robot companion Skeets hovered tentatively in the distance. “We have to save him,” he whimpered, lashing out at the floor in spite of the pain. “I have to get him back.”

“With respect, Sir,” Skeets chirped, “Your previous attempts at extracting Mr Kord from the time line prior to his death have proved catastrophic.”

“I just have to save him, we were meant to… That’s It, I’ve only tried to save him before he died. …before he died.”

“Michael, I hasten to point out the futility of saving Mr Kord after his death -”

Booster cut him off. “No, Skeets, that’s it. What if we just thought he was dead?”

“According to the Kubler Ross five stages of grief, Sir, it is clear that you are currently experiencing denial.”

“No, this isn’t denial. What if we were to go back and remove his body right after Max shoots him? And then we bring him to the future where they can fix a bullet wound with some magic ray beam or, or, _something_?”

“It borders on the insane, Sir, and I wouldn’t advise any temporal changes on such a scale without consulting Captain Hunter.”

Booster rolled his eyes.

“Rip’ll say it's fine.”

* * *

“You're insane,” said Rip Hunter, agitation clear. His long brown hair was only accentuating the redness accruing in his unshaven face, his annoyance and possibly his long brown coat were leading him to perspire in the Arizona heat. “You can’t do it. It can't be done!”

“Don’t bottle it up, Rip. Say how you're feeling,” Booster retorted sarcastically.

“It’s impossible," Rip shot back, composure long since gone. "The amount of things that could go wrong, even the tiniest miscalculation and you could upset the future to the point where you weren’t even born. And even if you pull it off, what then da… damn it, Michael. What then?”

“OK. We leave the scarab to keep the timeline in tact, Jaime Reyes gets it and Ted’s legacy as the Blue Beetle lives on. Meanwhile we spend the rest of our lives on some beach sagging away in our speedos with a cocktail in our hands, simple. Everyone thinks Ted is still dead and that I finally realised I wasn’t cut out to be a hero. That I’m just living out my days off of the fat inheritance I that I managed to gigolo out of Gladys.”

“Michael,” Rip sighed finally, “I can’t stop you from doing this. So please, for the sake of everyone, don’t screw it up.”

At this Booster headed towards one of the Time Spheres at the far end of the lab, finished with the conversation, leaving Rip to shake his head and mutter under his breath,

“God damn it, Dad. Why now? This changes everything.”

* * *

Inside the time sphere Booster's hands trembled as he set the coordinates. He almost stopped half way through as the nerves kicked in - this was it.

This was the last chance he had to save the person who he had loved most throughout all of time.

One false move, the slightest mistake, and he could be looking at crisis beyond measure.

He fought back a wave of nausea as the shear magnitude of what he was about to do set in and then, finally, swiped a shaky hand across his face and finished calibrating the machinery that would take him back to the arms of Ted Kord.

This was the hardest part, having to wait. Having to stand by and stay silent as Maxwell Lord, a man who Booster once thought of as a friend, shot Ted point blank in the head.

If his plan was to work, there was no other option.

Hiding in the shadows of Checkmate’s Balkan Castle, Booster watched as Ted discovered Max’s plot to rid the world of super humans. Continued to watch as Ted tried so hard to escape before succumbing to Max’s powers of mind control. He listened as Ted told Max to go to hell and when Max pulled that trigger, that was when he acted.

When he used the suit's force field technology, the lightning fast reflexes, to stop the bullet just as it entered Beetle's brain. The bullet twisted into Ted’s head, ripping through flesh and skull, the force of which knocked him clear to the ground. But Booster concentrated, used every ounce of willpower he was able to muster, and stopped the bullet pushing further.

Max, assuming that the bullet had done its job, left the room oblivious to Booster's presence and interference. Issuing an order to an unseen flunky in the Checkmate control room,

“This is a priority, Black King command to all directorates: Set Brother I to autonomous control. Activate Project OMAC.”

Knowing full well the consequences of Max’s orders, Booster almost went after Max. But he already knew what fate had in store for Maxwell Lord and Project OMAC. Instead he returned his attention to his prone friend lying on the chequered tiles, blood pouring from a serious, but mostly superficial wound. Booster then hoisted Ted carefully up into his arms and moved across to the Time Sphere to return to the future and to Rip Hunter's time lab.

Looking up through the shattered eyepiece of his mask, Ted gasped, “…Booster, I…,” before losing consciousness.

* * *

It had been seven hours since Booster had returned to the laboratory of Rip Hunter. Ted was immediately whisked into surgery by the able Captain, to remove the bullet from his skull.

Booster was sat in the corridor outside the operating theatre, slumped in a dejected manner with his goggles laying on the floor next to him. He had obviously been crying, the grime covering his face punctuated by two parallel lines of cleanliness amidst the ashen dark. Skeets hovered some way away, embodying an almost human prescience for knowing when to be there for his friend, but also knowing that words would not be enough to soothe the fear brewing in Michael’s heart.

“I can’t lose him, Skeets… not after all that, not after watching it happen. After losing Michelle again I couldn’t lose Ted too, not again, I can’t.…” his words became choked off as Booster just shook, silently sobbing while Skeets hovered, either not knowing what to say, or knowing that by saying nothing and just being there he was a better friend than most.

A further two hours passed before Rip emerged from the operating theatre. He removed his surgical mask and looked down to where Booster was slumped behind the door, moving stiffly to crouch down in front of him.

“I got it, you can go and sit with him if you like.”

With that, he just stood up to his full height and walked off. Booster blinked, not able to wholly grasp the words that had passed through his ears and then the broadest grin spread across his face, not the painted smile that had endorsed everything from a tropical casino to adult diapers, but a look of pure unbridled joy.

He all but skipped into the next room to see Ted. But when his eyes surveyed the room Booster’s face fell; Ted was lying still connected to a dozen or so machines by tubes and wires. It took Booster a moment to even realise that Ted was conscious. That Ted's gaze was on him, that his lips were quirking into a helpless smile.

“Why the long face, eh? No, wait, let me guess. You’re so sick to death of being Booster Gold you’ve decided to become Horseman, the long face of the law.”

Booster just looked down at Ted lying there on the bed, attempting to make sense of what his best friend was saying. He stared for too long, the tear tracks still fresh on his cheeks, when suddenly it all fell into place. Ted was here. Ted was alive. Ted was wisecracking - or, at the very least, attempting to.

“BWHAHAHAHA!!!”

Booster began to laugh so hard it was a struggle to breathe. So hard he was doubled over, all the pressure, the tension, releasing into the quiet of the recovery room. When he finally regained his breath and straightened himself up, he pulled up a chair next to the bed and sank into it. They sat together in contemplative silence, just for a few moments, before Ted asked when he could get out of there.

“A couple of days,” Booster replied.

“We should fly out somewhere hot when this is over, maybe get a tan.”

“I’ve got just the thing to go in.”

“You didn’t?” Ted questioned.

“Have the bug shipped up from Kord industries, you mean? Sorry, yeah.” Booster moved in closer to Ted and put his hand on the bed. “Ted, I…”

“Rip told me what you did, the lengths you went to, all to save me. You must be crazy, I’m not so special - you almost killed yourself how many times trying to save me?”

Booster looked at Ted, both men on the verge of collapse from sheer exhaustion and shrugged. Forced the words past the lump in his throat and said quietly,

“It’s easy when it’s someone you love.”

Ted grabbed hold of Booster's hand. Neither of them needed to say another word.

* * *

The next few weeks saw Ted undergo a gruelling recovery before the two packed their bags and went off.

As the bug flew off into the sunset Booster looked over at Ted and smiled. Ted glanced back at him, the smile contagious.

“So, tell me, whatever happened to Gladys?”

Booster shifted awkwardly and gave a little nervous laugh. “Well, how do you think I could afford all these extra super suits?” As that sunk in he asked a question of his own, “So, tell me, whatever happened with you and Barbara?”

“Well, being dead kinda puts a cold shower on any relationship, and its not like she was ever going to get over Dick.”

“Well, at least we still have each other,” Booster said, deadpan, causing them both to laugh. Made it feel just like old times, enough that he asked, “So, Ted, where are we going anyway?”

Ted just grinned.

“Don’t we still own all that land on Kooey Kooey Kooey?”

“BWHAHAHAHA!!!!”

**Author's Note:**

> As ever, feel free to chat / hit me with prompts over on Tumblr [@serenwib](http://serenwib.tumblr.com/). :)


End file.
